20556: (Hermantin)Sun-Sentinel-Congressman tells students that Marines will be in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Congressman tells students that Marines will be in Haiti for a year or more

By Tal Abbady
Staff Writer
Posted March 16 2004

Delray Beach · Let Haiti grow up.

That was one student's solution to the political crisis in the 200-year-old
island nation where U.S. Marines have again been sent. U.S. Rep. Mark Foley
spoke of the crisis Monday to Haitian-American students at Toussaint
L'Ouverture High School for Arts and Social Justice.

Foley, R-West Palm Beach, told students Haiti can expect Marines to remain
there for at least a year while the country regains political stability and
begins to rebuild its infrastructure, economy and institutions weakened by
ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's rule.

Foley, who has called for a halt to the deportations of Haitian refugees in
detention and has led delegations to the troubled country, said he came to
the school to help clear up misperceptions about American involvement in
Haiti. His talk came hours after a Marine was shot and wounded Sunday in
Port-au-Prince.

Enrollment at Touissant L'Ouverture comprises a transient population of
Haitian immigrant children.

Foley stressed the need for a comprehensive U.S. aid program that would
provide training for jobs and involve Haitian-American leaders in the
country's rehabilitation.

He talked about an island of bundle-carrying villagers who work hard, as
well as the export potential of the island's aromatic coffee and local art
work, as some students looked on warily.

"I've been hearing this over and over," said Josiane Simevril, 18, a
12th-grader who lives in Boynton Beach, after the event. "It's all talk and
no action," said Simevril, who was born in Liancourt, Haiti, and hopes to
become a pediatrician with a practice in Haiti.

"Even though they replaced a president, it's going to be the same thing.
It'll be the same deal, another guy putting money in his own pocket. It
doesn't matter who the president is," said Wilgy Therlonge, 19, an
11th-grader from Boynton Beach and the only student to stand up and address
Foley at the congressman's invitation.

Applauding Therlonge, Foley reiterated that the presence of Marines alone
won't break the country's cycle of political corruption. Educating the young
to be active participants in a democracy is key, he said.

Therlonge, who welcomed Foley's views, arrived from Haiti less than two
years ago after leaving behind the aunt who raised him when his mother died.
A fledgling musician, he has released a Creole-language CD about the
country's civil strife.

Thomas Monroe, head of the school's science department, and community
leaders including Daniella Henry of the Haitian American Community Council
and Negro Pravalus of the Primitive Church House of God, commended Foley for
his visit to the school.

"It was a good thing to clear up the misunderstanding between these students
and the U.S. government," Monroe said. "They feel Haiti has been shown as a
desolate nation with nothing to offer."

Tal Abbady can be reached at tabbady@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6624.

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